Eye-Opening Experience
by AnimationNut
Summary: Sometimes all it takes is one accident to make you realize how wrong you were in your actions. For King Julien, Mort's accident was an eye-opening experience.


**I do not own Penguins of Madagascar.**

**Eye-Opening Experience**

Every animal in the Central Park Zoo had their own morning routine. For the penguins, it was morning training. For Marlene, it was a quick swim. For the chimps, it was reading old issues of newspapers they had managed to nick from the trash bins near their habitat.

And as for the lemurs, it was not uncommon to see a small, fuzzy brown ball fly across the zoo and land in one of the other habitats. Mort always shook it off and raced back to King Julien with the intent of worshipping his king.

Today was just one of those days where no one expected anything to go horribly wrong (except for perhaps Skipper, who was paranoid by nature).

Julien awoke to bright sunlight and a heavy weight on his ankles. With a scowl of irritation, the King of Lemurs glared down at his youngest companion, who was currently clinging to his feet for dear life. "MORT! What have I told about de touching of de royal feet? DERE IS NO TOUCHING!"

Maurice watched tiredly as Julien booted Mort out of the habitat with one strong kick. Concern quickly filled his gaze as Mort sailed over the zoo walls. "Julien-!"

"He will be fine," Julien said dismissively, curling back up in the warm sunlight. "Soon he will be back with his annoying self-"

The sickening sound of squealing brakes and panicked shouts rang across the rather empty zoo. Maurice snapped his head towards where he had seen Mort disappear, hoping beyond hope the little guy would clamber up the walls any second.

He barely noticed when Alice came up to their habitat and started tossing in fruit. He did, however, notice the frazzled lady who raced up to the zookeeper. "Miss, there's been an accident outside, and I think one of your zoo animals has been hit!"

That was enough to jolt Julien up from his lazy position. He stared at the two women with wide eyes. Maurice found himself unable to breathe.

"Are you sure?" Alice asked, her voice holding a bit of panic (although Maurice doubted it was for the wellbeing of Mort). "Are you sure it wasn't a squirrel or something?"

"If so, it was the oddest squirrel I've ever seen." The lady remarked. Her gaze flickered to the lemurs. "Actually, the poor little guy looked like those two, but just a little bit."

Alice snapped her head towards the lemurs and groaned. "I'm missing one! Quick! We need to make some calls! Is the little guy okay?"

"I don't know. He seems like he's lost a lot of blood, but-"

The rest of the conversation disappeared as the women did. The two lemurs sat in stunned silence, unable to comprehend what might have happened to their young charge.

"What the deuce just happened?"

The demand came from none other than the commanding officer of the penguins. Skipper and his boys glared down at the two lemurs from the wall, fury boiling in their gazes.

Maurice slowly glanced up at the penguins. His mind processed the situation one more time before the fury rolled through him. "WHAT DID YOU DO?" He cried out, turning his anger on the one who kicked Mort to his death.

_No, no. I don't know that. He might not be dead. He CAN'T be dead._

"I should have known." Skipper said grimly. "What's the matter, Ringtail? Did Sad-Eyes finally cause you to snap? Decided to do away with him?"

"You should be ashamed!" Private admonished with tears gathering in his eyes. For as annoying as Mort could be, no zoo animal would ever wish severe harm upon the innocent mouse lemur.

Julien snapped out of his blank state and glared heatedly at the accusations. "How daring of you to be accusing me!"

"You were the one who kicked Mort out of the zoo!" Maurice snapped.

"If you have not noticed, I am doing that a lot." Julien returned.

"Well, it was only a matter of time before great harm fell upon him." Kowalski looked at Julien with disgust. "And that time has come."

"I AM NOT DOING IT ON PURPOSE!" Julien shouted, furious that they would even _think _he would ever wish Mort death.

"YOU KILLED HIM!" Maurice screamed back, the fear and anger building up. With both lemurs in a state of helplessness they felt like all they could do now was fight. And so they did.

Unable to deal with the accusation that he may have killed his young charge, Julien tackled Maurice to the ground.

Skipper watched the two tussle and let out a sigh of weariness. "Rico, Private, get them to knock it off. Kowalski, we're going to check on Sad-Eyes. To see..."

Kowalski nodded sharply, and Skipper did not need to finish his sentence. The thought of Mort being dead put a sick feeling in everyone's stomach.

...

Eventually (after much force) Maurice and Julien were separated. They sat at opposite ends of their habitat to calm down and be with their thoughts, with Rico and Private keeping a close watch over them.

King Julien slumped in his throne with one paw pressed to his forehead. The emotions running through him were ones he tried so hard to suppress. It was his belief that being king meant that showing care to his subjects meant showing weakness. Kings couldn't be weak. So he attempted to be impassive, to not show that he cared about others.

But now he was considering that perhaps that wasn't the way to be. And it was very rare when he admitted he was wrong about _anything_.

A groan escaped Julien and he rubbed his eyes. "When will the silly penguins be getting back?"

"Soon," Private answered. "It shouldn't take long to see if-"He cut himself off and swallowed. "I mean-"

"We get it," Maurice snapped from the bouncy, his voice shaking slightly. "It won't take long to find out if Mort is alive or dead."

Julien winced. Ugh. How he _hated _that word.

"Well, speak of the devils." Maurice added as Skipper and Kowalski flipped over the wall. "So...how is he?"

"Good news, people. Sad-Eyes is alive." Skipper announced.

Private clapped his flippers happily. Maurice and Julien both deflated with relief, and a great weight was lifted from Julien's shoulders. He hadn't killed Mort.

"Mind you, he's a bit roughed up." Kowalski informed. "He's bruised and covered in bandages. He'll be sore for a while."

"But he is being alive!" Julien exclaimed. "I did not kill him."

"Consider yourself lucky," Skipper growled. "Things would have gone _very _unpleasant for you. Come on, boys. We have good news to spread."

The four penguins departed and Maurice glanced up at his king. "Uh...about the whole-"

"You can be forgetting about it." Julien waved his paw dismissively. "It..." The words got stuck in his throat, but he pushed on, because he felt that they had to be said. "It was being my fault anyway."

Maurice arched his brow in surprise. "Did you just say what I think you just said?"

"YES, OKAY?" Julien snapped. "Do not make me say it again."

He really did hate admitting when something was his fault.

Maurice smiled slightly. He knew, deep down, that King Julien really cared about Mort and him. When you travel from Madagascar all the way to New York City together, you end up becoming a family, whether you like it or not. And in his opinion, the three lemurs made up the perfect family.

And maybe, just maybe, King Julien wouldn't be so uptight about showing his affections towards his family any more.

...

It was rather late when Mort was released from the vet office. The mouse lemur curled up in the vet's arms, exhaustion and pain rushing through his small body. His mind was fuzzy and he was just so sore. And it was all because of the dumb metal monster.

"Alright, little guy." The vet said as she set Mort into the lemur exhibit. "I'll be back tomorrow to check on you."

Mort plopped down in the grass and yawned. "Time to go sleepy-bye." He was about to snuggle in the cold grass when a pair of arms lifted him up from the ground.

"MORT! You are alive!" Julien exclaimed, swinging the small lemur in the air. Mort winced slightly but smiled brightly, happy to be out of the small, smelly room where so many people wouldn't stop touching or hurting him.

"Yes! I am." Mort said cheerfully.

"Are you feeling goodly?" Julien asked, studying Mort's blood-stained bandages with guilt.

"I hurt _all _over." Mort answered. "Do I have to go back to the bad smelly place where people poke me?"

Maurice patted Mort on the head. "I'm afraid so. Just until you're all better."

Mort scrunched his nose up. Maurice gave Julien a pointed look. The King swallowed nervously. "Mort, I am s-." He coughed to clear his throat and tried again. "Mort-I-am-sorry."

Despite the words being said at lightning speed, Mort seemed to understand.

"It's okay!" Mort said. The mouse lemur never failed to amaze his two keepers with his quick ability to forgive and forget. Mort then yawned, his eyes struggling to stay open. Maurice noticed and took Mort from Julien's arms and over to the bouncy.

"You had an eventful day today." The Aye-Aye commented. "Now it's time to sleep."

Mort nodded sleepily. "Will the metal monster come after me again tomorrow?"

"I promise you, by my awesome kingly status, that no metal monster will ever come after you again." Julien assured Mort.

The mouse lemur smiled happily up at his two caretakers with bright eyes. "Yay!"

As Mort curled up on the bouncy, Maurice sat beside him and started to hum a lullaby, gently stroking Mort's matted fur. Julien sprawled in front of his two companions, chin in his hands as he listened to Maurice sing a melody in the peaceful night. In that moment he resolved that, no matter how impassive he acted to others, he would try to let Maurice and Mort know how important they were to him.

Julien decided that there was no weakness in showing affection to your family.

**Ignore the OOC-ness :P This is my first PoM fic, so hopefully you won't be too critical xD**

**I don't think Julien hates Mort at all. I think he's just shoving down his more affectionate emotions so no one can accuse him of being a soft king. I think that's why he doesn't show much affection to others. But he does have his moments. Plus, if he really didn't care about Mort, then he wouldn't have cared when Mort was in trouble in **_**Operation: Plush and Cover**_** or have minded when Mort was missing in **_**When the Chips are Down**_**.**

**I do appreciate reviews and constructive criticism, but please, don't flame. **

**Hope you enjoyed!**


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